On 22 December 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in China confirmed the 2018 FiT rate and the anticipated grace period until June 2018 to obtain the 2017 FiT rate (for projects approved in 2017). The FiT tariff valid from 1 January 2018 is 0.55 yuan/kWh, 0.65 yuan/kWh, and 0.75 yuan/kWh for resource areas I, II and III, respectively. Distributed PV systems that sell surplus power to the grid will obtain 0.37 yuan/kWh for the excess power. The updated policy has removed the grace period in 2019, meaning that the 2019 FiT rate will apply for all projects as of 1 January 2019. The FiT deadlines for different policy segments, in parallel with events in PV markets outside China, will determine the quarterly module pricing and installation patterns. IHS Markit maintains its current annual 50 GW PV installation projection for China in 2018, but we are reviewing the quarterly distribution.

SNEC PV Expo 2017 was once again a frantic exhibition, and the show floors felt as busy as previous years. The show has become an annual celebration of a market that has grown ferociously to account for sizeable share of both global demand and supply.

China has started implementing its latest content regulations, and big foreign companies are feeling the impact. DisneyLife, the on demand streaming service by Walt Disney and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has gone offline not long after the suspension of Apple's iTunes Movies and iBooks stores in China. Both services had their services operated for less than a year in China, and become unavailable since April 2016.

Hong Kong’s leading free-to-air broadcaster TVB has launched a subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) service, offering live streaming of 20 channels and an 11,000-hour library of content including classic dramas from TVB and acquired programming from South Korea and Japan.

The Walt Disney Company and the Alibaba Group have announced a multi-year licence agreement to launch DisneyLife, a new on-demand streaming service, in China. China will the second market for DisneyLife, after its exclusive launch in the UK in late November.

Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba has announced the acquisition Youku Tudou for $4.2 billion in a cash transaction. The acquisition is in both sides’ interest from both a financial and strategic perspective.

Qatar-based media company, BeIn Media Group, announced that it is entering the movies and entertainment content market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The announcement, which came on October 31st, marked the 12th anniversary of the BeIn Media Group. Explaining the company’s decision, CEO Nasser Al Khelaifi stated: “Our consumer research in the MENA region indicated for quite some time that families expect a leading entertainment provider like BeIn to offer a complete range of TV entertainment channels. Furthermore, we identified a sweet-spot in terms of pricing of pay TV in the region that has traditionally been over-priced”.

HBO is to launch programming day and date with the US on a dedicated channel launching in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The channel, launching in 2016, is a joint venture with the pan-Arabic pay TV operator OSN. The Dubai-based operator will enrich the content offer of its On Demand service with more than 2,000 hours of HBO programming, including a thousand hours of complete box sets of HBO TV series.

On 28th September, China’s NEA (National Energy Administration) announced plans to increase the country's quota for solar PV capacity by an additional 5.3 GWac. This has been widely reported as China increasing its 2015 PV installation target.

Tmall Box Office (TBO), an online video service by Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba, has become available in a trial mode via Alibaba’s smart TVs and set-top-boxes after most recent software update. TBO is offering access to local and foreign content; it claims to have more than a thousand movies with hundreds of them being exclusive.

Chinese internet giant, Alibaba will launch an online video service, Tmall Box Office (TBO), in late summer 2015. The company hopes to develop the Chinese equivalent of HBO and Netflix with 90 per cent of content paid for, either by a subscription or on a PPV basis.

Australian online video subscription company, Quickflix has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire a China-based content production company subject to satisfactory completion of further due diligence. Launched in 2003 as a DVD-by-post service, Quickflix launched a Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) streaming service in Australia during October 2011 followed by the expansion of its streaming service to New Zealand in May 2012. As such, the foray into China marks a new direction for the company.

Hong Kong’s market-leading terrestrial television broadcaster, TVB has been granted renewal of its domestic free-to-air (FTA) broadcasting service licence for 12 years until 2027. The award is subject to a mid-term review in 2021. TVB’s licence was last renewed in 2002, with a validity of 12 years from 2003 to 2015.

The 23rd China Content Broadcasting Network (CCBN) took place in Beijing from March 24 to 28. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) used the show communicate new strategic directions for the development of China’s TV broadcasting. The government is encouraging cable TV operators to upgrade their networks to support multiscreen TV services to connected devices, now that TV digitization is almost complete. There were 234 million of cable TV users and 184 million digital subscribers at the end of 2014.

Netflix has announced that its service will be launched in Australia and New Zealand on 24 March 2015. Consumers can look forward to original content, local as well as foreign series and films available on smart televisions, set-top boxes, games consoles, tablets and smartphones.

Intel is acquiring Lantiq, provider of DSL broadband access and home networking technology. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed, and the process is expected to take 90 days to fully close, pending any regulatory approvals and transaction stipulations.

Scrutiny of China’s online streaming portals has increased, resulting in new censorship measures for major US TV series. The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), has published a notice demanding that online video providers submit complete seasons of foreign shows with Chinese subtitles to the censorship board before they go on air. Affected are such providers as Tencent, Alibaba, Youku Tudou, Baidu's iQiyi and Sohu.

Tencent, one of China’s leading internet portals, has signed an agreement with HBO to stream the Time Warner-owned network’s TV dramas and movies. Under the deal, Tencent is now the exclusive online distributor of HBO in China.

Whilst China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) lowered its 2014 installation target from 14 GW to 13 GW and matched IHS’ forecast from earlier in the year, it vowed to continue support for the PV industry and upcoming policy will help to remove barriers for distributed solar (DPV) and accelerate the build-out of new projects.